Who is the top or best cosmetic facial plastic surgeon in Ottawa?

Who is the top or best cosmetic facial plastic surgeon in Ottawa?

How do we go about deciding who is the “best” cosmetic or “top” plastic surgeon? Who is the top surgeon for that matter? It’s a question that all potential patients want answered. There are many factors why this is such a crucial question. For one it’s your face! The second is the investment in both time and money.  Together, these two things make many people very nervous and obviously want someone who has the skill, experience, knowledge, artistic mindset and humanistic approach that is required of a facial cosmetic surgeon or a facial plastic surgeon.

Often times in clinic, I get asked who I think the best cosmetic surgeon is in Ottawa. It’s a question I just cannot answer as there are many factors and requirements that are very specific to the individual. Some people want a surgeon that is friendly while others do not care. Some what a surgeon who has been in private practice longer using long standing techniques while others want someone who has recently finished trained and has specialized in more recent techniques. What is right for you depends on what you feel comfortable with.

My advice for anyone looking for the best plastic surgeon, the best facial plastic surgeon or the best cosmetic surgeon is to remember one thing, the word ‘best’ really depends on what you are looking for. In Canada, our training is world class. All surgeons are highly qualified and skilled in their craft. As mentioned earlier, the differences lay in those elements that one cannot teach; an artistic mind, friendliness and an approach to your problem that fits your needs.

However, some general advice is as follows.

• Make sure you see that your surgeon has the qualifications you would expect. In Canada, we all complete our surgical training as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Those of us who hope to become experts in Cosmetic Surgery typically do a “Fellowship” which is extra training after we are a certified surgeon. It’s often a good idea to ask about this fellowship training.
• Do you trust and get along with your surgeon? Do you trust and get along with his staff? These are two great questions to ask yourself. Remember, you will be seeing this person before surgery, at surgery and many times after surgery. You will have many questions and often some concerns. If you don’t not trust and get along with your surgeon, you are asking for trouble. Get a sense of how your interactions are. If you need to, go back a second time and talk again. Ask yourself, if something goes wrong, do I trust this person to help me? All surgeons have complications, it is part of surgery, our goal is to minimize them as much as possible and if they do happen be there for you to fix things.
• Look up reviews, but don’t focus on them. In today’s internet driven society, reviews are everywhere and we as health care workers need to understand that. The problem is, the vast majority of patients are very happy with their care. From time to time someone will be unhappy. Unfortunately, it is more common for unhappy people to leave a review than it is for the happy people. However, if someone has many great reviews and a very small number of negative reviews you can often assume that overall the reviews are very positive. I would guess that it takes anywhere from 50-100 happy patients to get a good review compared to every 2-3 unhappy patients to get a bad review. So you can see, those with a lots of good reviews often have lots of happy patients.

 

In the end, the key to knowing how to choose the best plastic surgeon in Ottawa is to ensure you feel comfortable with the care you are going to receive.

 

James P Bonaparte, MD, MSc, FRCSC

JB Cosmetics and Facial Surgery

Facial Cosmetic Surgery
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada